Tag: urban decay
Rat City
Two Properties
These two properties are less than a block from each other. Tale of two houses/living spaces. Behind the large tree is an actual house that’s appears to be occupied.
Note: I’m posting this from my iPad. I’m trying to resolve an issue on my MacBook. It currently is not allowing WordPress to access my photos. Posting from an iPad is slow and a pain in the …
Update: House on the Hill
I’ve posted, in the past five years, images of this house that has been abandoned for years in the South Park area of Seattle. I made a trip down there a couple of weeks ago and took these images. Since I last visited the house it has suffered through two arson/meth related fires.
While I was taking these images a small, wiry guy came up behind me and said ‘Hi’. Through our conversation, I learned he was the night watchman for the owner of the Marina and storage facilities along the Duwamish River. We talked for about 20 minutes. He was quite a character. He has lived in the area for years. He gave me a history of the house or as much as he knew. He witnessed both fires, one set by a person cooking up some meth on the second story wooden floor. The house is actually for sale, as a tear down of course. I tried walking in the house a few years back and the debris was waist high and probably a mine field of syringes; I stopped after a few feet and bailed out of the window I came in from, which I think was the kitchen in the back. Besides, I really didn’t know if there was someone living upstairs-addicts or homeless people.
So, for a little history that was shared with me:
After WWII the house was used as ‘transitional’ housing for Japanese Americans that were interned during the war. They transitioned from the camps to this house in an effort to reintegrate; most of the property they owned prior to internment was lost, sold or confiscated.
Sometime after that a couple bought the house and stayed in it for years. The couple were a bit eccentric, but one of their hobbies was coin collecting. Apparently they hid this collection ( valued in excess of $100,000 back in the 60’s-70’s) in a box somewhere in the house. The man died first, leaving his widow to deal with the house, which soon became too much for her as she aged. So, she moved out, but could not find the box of coins. As time passed, for reasons unknown to me, the house fell into disrepair and ultimately declined into a mess. The lady would return from time to time, looking for the box of coins, to no avail.
After the second fire, the people living in the area( like the night watchman-old timers) went in looking through the debris to see if the box of coins had burned, surfaced or whatever. They did find the box, but it was empty. It was assumed that one of the homeless people who had wandered in, had found the box, after the fire, and walked away with a pocketful of dreams.
A rich and tragic history for what was once one of the better homes, with quite a view, in South Park.
Outdoor Plumbing
There is a bit of history regarding this photo. Photo was taken in July of 1970, using film and decades later, scanned into PC.
Location: East Oakland, CA. A friend had recently remodeled her bathroom and the remnants of the old bathroom ended up in her backyard. She lived on Oak Knoll Rd., a few blocks from the Oakland Zoo. Across the street from her lived Sonny Barger, the head of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. An interesting neighborhood!
Had to crank up the “Way Back Machine” for this one :-).
House on the Hill: Update
In March of 2016 I posted a couple of photos of an abandoned house in the South Park neighborhood of South Seattle, near where I live. I resisted the location this past week and you can see the ‘changes’ that have taken place in less than a year. I couldn’t get in the house in March as it had about 3-4 feet of debris in each room-who knows what was in that mess? Now, the house has suffered a major fire ( arson, most likely) and it is mostly a charred ruin. The lot it sits on has been cleaned of dead cars and all sorts of other trash and is now barricaded off with huge cement blocks and cable. At one time this house had a great territorial view and was probably someones pride and joy.
Indeed
Spotted on the side of an abandoned building in Ellensburg, WA.
Post-Industrial America
A
Idle crane at an abandoned scrap yard in South Seattle.
Graffiti along Sound Transit Line
Taken while riding the light rail line into downtown Seattle.
The House on the Hill: Pt. II
My second visit to the House on the Hill in South Park, Seattle. Due to waist-high debris it was impossible to get more than a couple of feet inside the house. The interior is severely burned; it smells and is very unsafe. On the outside there is broken glass everywhere in addition to piles of debris. At one time this was a house with a view of Downtown Seattle in the distance as well as the Duwamish River nearby. I don’t know what “Skin Trap House” means, so if anyone has any ideas…. feel free to comment. The ground floor of the interior looks more like a dumping ground than anything else; perhaps after the fire people just repurposed the house? A good percentage the debris is not fire damaged. The image of the stairs leading to the second floor I found most appealing and engaging.
House on a Hill
Sort of a creepy, abandoned house in South Park, Seattle. I hope to venture inside soon. If so, I will post what I find.
Abandoned and Vandalized
I half expected to find a corpse in the car as I approached it!
Derelict Pier
Derelict wooden pier on Harbor Island. CenturyLink Field in the background.
Grafitti and Gentrification
Just an observation with no provable data: As neighborhoods decline and are on the cusp of gentrification, graffiti/street art goes on the upswing. If true, there is probably a multitude of reasons for this trend or cycle. These images are from the same area north of Seattle U., on Capitol Hill.
Capitol Hill
I did a post a while back on the area north of Seattle U., on Capitol Hill. The area is changing rapidly. The old, two and four story brick buildings are being replaced by multiple use structures of glass, brick and steel. Some sections are pretty run down and could use some sort of a transformation, but I wonder how much longer the older, brick style buildings will last.
ps: I stretched my free space allowed on WordPress to the max ( 99.6%) so this morning I opted for the premium package, with more space and some other bells and whistles. For example, I should be able to customize fonts, etc. which I think will be nice. More options for the page layout as well, so…..maybe it is time to give this photoblog a minor makeover.
pps: March 28th I will have a booth at Springfest, an arts and crafts event. For Seattle folks I will have as many prints as I can put together for sale. More details about this event in the near future.
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